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France's National Front party is
plastering this image around the country in the hope of gaining some votes for
the upcoming regional elections. A woman wearing the niqab, minarets turned missiles,
a clear "No to Islamism", and France
draped in... the Algerian flag. A rather specific choice, and one that hasn't
gone down well in the North African country.

"No to Islamism. Youth with Le Pen".

The poster, marketing the
far-right group's youth faction, seems to have taken its inspiration from a
campaign by Switzerland's
far-right Swiss People's Party (UDC), which aims to outlaw minarets. The UDC is
now threatening to sue its fellow extremists in France, for "stealing" the design.

It's not only the Swiss who
are outraged by the poster - two anti-racism organisations in France (Mrap and SOS-Racisme) have started criminal proceedings
against the leader of the National Front (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen, who will appear
in court on May 6 over the poster's design.

In Algeria meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mourad Medelci has publicly protested the use of
the country's national flag, asking its former colonial ruler to "take firm
measures to prevent the symbols of foreign nations from being insulted".

Abdelkrim Mekfouldji is a
French teacher and retired journalist from Blida, Algeria.

This doesn't surprise me
coming from Jean-Marie Le Pen, but it's still hard for us to see it. It's
outrageous to limit the ‘Islamist' threat to only my country, as though it
comes exclusively from here. In fact, the countries where the threat is
strongest are Pakistan and Afghanistan,
which aren't even part of the Arab world. On top of that, the FN is forgetting
that many of the Muslims here who have Algerian origins are actually of French
nationality.

Next up - the threatening
looking woman wearing the niqab looks nothing like an Algerian woman. It's very
rare to see a women dressed like that here.

Not many Algerians have
heard about this yet. It has been mentioned in the papers, but once everyone gets
wind of it, then the relations between the two countries are going to get very
sour very quickly. It wasn't long ago that France refused to compensate
victims of the Reggane nuclear tests [taken out in the south of the country
in the 1960s].

The real problem is that
this controversy is a blessing for our politicians, who are looking for something
to avert our attention away from the current social crisis [teachers and
doctors are on strike], which they haven't yet found a solution for."